CBRE Arranges Sale of Two Buildings in Huntsville's Cummings Research Park

Huntsville, AL – June 15, 2021 – CBRE announced the sale of Discovery Center Portfolio, a two-building, 166,345 sq. ft. office portfolio in Huntsville, Alabama. Elmington Capital Group and Samples Properties sold the buildings to Albany Road Real Estate Partners for $18.35 million. Located at 655 & 675 Discovery Drive NW, the buildings are part of Cummings Research Park West, the second largest research park in the country. The buildings were 90% occupied at the time of sale.

Morgan Hillenmeyer with CBRE’s Nashville office facilitated the sale on behalf of the seller. Huntsville-based Samples Properties will continue to manage and lease the portfolio.

“Huntsville’s strong market fundamentals and access to a highly-educated workforce in Huntsville made the portfolio incredibly attractive to investors,” said Hillenmeyer, a First Vice President with CBRE. “Huntsville has the largest concentration of engineers in the country as well as the highest number of PhD’s per capita.”

The office buildings are currently home to major engineering and defense technology companies including General Electric, Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, Trideum Corporation and Technology Services Corporation.

According to CBRE Research, there were over 750,000 sq. ft. of leases signed in Huntsville in 2020 with approximately 260,000 sq. ft. of new construction in the Cummings Research Park submarket pipeline. In 2021, office vacancies should remain low as companies continue to commit to the Huntsville region for the high-quality talent and low cost of living. 

“We are excited to complete the acquisition of the Discovery Center Portfolio through Albany Road Fund III,” said Scott Cloud, Managing Director with Albany Road Real Estate Partners. “The buildings have historically performed well, and we expect that success to continue with our planned improvements. We see great opportunity in the Huntsville market due to the diversity and strength of its growth industries, the critical nature of the tenancy in Research Park and a deep and highly educated workforce.  When you combine those factors, we see the investment as a quality and strategic addition to our fund.”

About Albany Road Real Estate Partners:

Albany Roadwas established in July 2012 to deliver attractive risk-adjusted and tax-efficient returns to its high net worth and family office investors. Following an initial focus on opportunities in the Northeast, the firm expanded its reach into the Southeast, Southwest, and Mountain regions with the opening of offices in Nashville, Dallas, and Denver and subsequent acquisitions in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Florida, and Arizona.

Since its inception, the firm has made 50 investments totaling $1.3 billion in gross asset value and approximately 11.5 million square feet.  Albany Road completed the raise of Fund III in January 2021, which is $245 million in size.